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I got to thinking (frightening, I know) because of this broadside reposted to the Food Not Bombs discussion list by Erich:

[According to the Terra Bite Cafe (http://www.terrabite.org/) in Kirkland, WA]

If I thought there were starving people on the other side of town, I might feel compelled to immediately go help feed them. But that's not the case. Hunger in America is by and large a solved problem, symptomatic of mental illness or child neglect. That applies to most of the world, in fact -- although malnutrition is still widespread, even the UN acknowledges that obesity is now a bigger problem than actual hunger. Poverty is in rapid decline worldwide.

So Terra Bite doesn't imagine some big hunger problem. Instead, we are creating a highly efficient process and an enjoyable new trust-based experience for the mainstream. Our first priority is to maintain an upscale image and keep our mainstream clientele, because they fund everything. By leveraging the efficiencies in our trust-based process, we can then also benefit those who can't pay, without asking for charity.

Terra Bite only attempts to operate in demographics with enough affluence and honesty to sustain itself; we believe that those neighborhoods are increasing rapidly.

Also, we remove the stigma associated with receiving free food. It takes a lot for someone to go stand in line behind a church or at a soup kitchen. Terra Bite offers to feed these people along with the mainstream, with no stigma, with continuous availability, and with no attached religious or political message.

With regards to needy people, we are not just talking about the homeless; we are also talking about working people who may be in debt, or who may not be making rent this month. I think they should have access to food and a hot drink, with no stigma; and that's too fundamental to have some religious or political message attached to it.

Some free-food organizations are on the fringe politically. Though I admire what they do, I'm not sure that someone who is struggling financially benefits from exposure to a fringe philosophy. I think people who are struggling need to be brought into the mainstream -- sitting and eating with the mainstream is a good start. It is not our right to indoctrinate people with our personal views just because we are feeding them."

My thoughts, also posted to the FNB list:

The Terra Bite statement seems antagonistic toward Food Not Bombs specifically. Their stated goal of operating only in communities with enough money to support them in voluntary pay for service guarantees they will avoid most needy people.

And their philosophy of bringing the struggling into the mainstream is more patronizing than what they accuse others of in the one statement with the most bite, "It is not our right to indoctrinate people with our personal views just because we are feeding them."

The way things are now are not OK, with minor problems to be solved by free espressos and deserts in a hip upscale setting. The upper-income, planet-destroying living habits of a tiny minority of the world's population are not the ideal. Both hunger and malnutrition (as if these were completely distinct issues) are tiny pieces of [the larger problem of] generations of people screwed out of a chance to reach their potential for personal growth and giving back to society.

There's desperate need for organizing for radical social change even if the well-oiled corporate agriculture system weren't in danger of [suddenly] creaking to a halt.

And the only way we're going to build a radical network is by directly helping people at the same time. So food not bombs is exactly where we need to be.

But what can we do better? We can't just say, here's food and a radical analysis of the political situation. (Pardon these thoughts from an isolated suburban fellow in Natick, Mass. with very little FNB experience, but please respond if you can to what you know or think about these ideas in practice.)

Non-stigmatizing is absolutely essential. Myself, probably like most people on this list, take free food wherever we can get it. But in the context of feed the hungry child in Africa ads on television and pity charity fundraising, free food can be immediately rejected as patronizing.

How do we ensure we aren't outsiders, but allies? In what ways can we establish a radical presence in more communities (even the suburbs)? What can we do to help put resources under the control people who need them, and not merely offer the help we're prepared to give?

We can put the emphasis on feeding the movement, and inviting others to eat. On not free food as an end in itself, or even as the way we want the world to be, but as a time and place to strategize about other needs.

Are we making / should we make the point that every $7 not spent on a meal (including drink!) is money or work time that can be used for family, self-improvement, or organizing.

What's being done / what can be done to involve more groups, Indymedia and local food and housing activists, in the profoundly radical act of providing our own food, coming together as elements of a movement for justice and liberty, doing outreach, and making the initial, unconditional act of mutual aid open to everyone -- all at the same time?

benjamin

People Who Give a Damn
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